How's That Government Working Out for Somalia?
Woman who accused security forces of rape sentenced to one year in prison along with reporter who interviewed her
Last year, Somalia came under the rule of the first internationally-recognized government in twenty years. Now it's jailing women who accuse its security forces of rape. Via the AP:
A Mogadishu court on Tuesday handed down one-year prison sentences to a woman who said she was raped by security forces and a reporter who interviewed her. The judges decided the woman falsely claimed she was raped and had insulted the government…
Rights groups have decried the case as politically motivated because the woman had accused security forces of the assault. Rape is reported to be rampant in Mogadishu, where tens of thousands of people who fled last year's famine live in poorly protected camps. Government troops are often blamed.
The woman's sentence will apparently be delayed by a year, to let the woman care for her young child. Where would she be if not for government?
More Reason on Somalia
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Sure sure but what about teh rodez???
Better off stateless.
http://www.peterleeson.com/Bet.....teless.pdf
Didn t RTA, but when you're within the boundaries of a state (pretty much anywhere on earth, effectively), being stateless could be a real pain.
The article is crap. The Somaliland people have government and are better off than the other Somalis. Mogadishans are better off now than without government.
Peter Leeson is a credible source. If you dispute his findings you will have to provide a citation.
Government bad. Anarchy good. Got it.
They didnt have anarchy before.
They had lots of tiny archys.
Actually they still have lots of tiny archies. The TFG only controls the area around Mogadishu, at most.
The TFG has allies throughout the country but basically yeah.
Got news for you. Anarchy is always lots of tiny archys.
Precisely. While I generally agree with the idea of anarchy, human nature means it could never work in actual practice. I just finished reading Brian Caplan's paper on the Spanish Revolution. They actually did have genuine anarchism there. But it rapidly devolved in lots of tiny archys which rapidly coalesced into a single committee of the people archy.
To be fair, minarchism might be just as naive as anarchism. Small decentralized and limited government occasionally kept in check by sporadic bouts of vigilance might be the best we can hope for.
The Xeer system is based on clans.
I, personally, do not feel a clan system would be a "Utopia", but the Polycentric legal system that developed could provide a good framework.
You're missing the irony. Brush up on Somalia as a Progressive strawman for libertopia
Irony?
"Where would she be if not for government?"
I believe that's called sarcasm. I see no irony in a piece that sets up government as a libertarian strawman for injustice.
Except actual injustices are being committed by the new govenrment of Somalia. Other than that...
Its a straw an because libertarians don't actually support anarchy, not because anarchy is awesome.
Or at least I thought so.
Anarchists invented the word libertarian to avoid admitting to being anarchist, so actually, classical libertarianism is anarchism.
Also, many who identify as libertarians today are anarcho-capitalists or other types of market anarchists. Reason's Sheldon Richman and myself are among them.
So reason just splits the difference by arguing that "government sucks?"
It seems like most libertarians, and all objectivists, support a state with a military.
I'm not sure about most (unless you subscribe to the way-too-general definition "fiscally conservative, socially liberal, and anti-war").
Most libertarians I talk to are anarcho-capitalists, and a few anti-capitalist individualist anarchists. Almost all of today's Austrian economists, and a few Chicago School economists, are an-caps.
Not true. There has been a strong minarchist streak in libertarianism right from the very beginning.
There were minarchists, but they were called liberals, not libertarians, at the time.
But have they started shooting the dogs and lighting children on fire in order to find processed plants? No?
Ain't so bad. Yet.
If it wasn't a legitimate rape then she deserved to be jailed. With the chaos in teh Sompalia, they have to be even MOAR vigilant. So this was justified.
Also, fried chicken.
This would never have happened if the the Somalis hadn't voted Republican.
That's why we need government - women won't just rape themselves
The little dears just don't know what's best for them. That's why there are Top. Men.
There are some things only government can do.
Somali government causes drought and famine, commentary oddly familiar.
http://youtu.be/iRZPMd1H7Z0
Haha, this only happens in a free market system. Lol, we sure are rubes!
This wouldn't happen if they invested more in infrastructure and light rail.
She might not have a young child that needs to be taken care of.
Being raped by the government is the price we pay for civilization.
Ed Krayewski looks down upon black Africans. Never lets an opportunity to put them down go by.
Seriously Reason. Y'all need to fire Ed Krayewski. He's a disservice to liberty loving people everywhere.
Well, if she doesn't like it, she should just move to America, where the government barely even exists - no roads are built, people don't have single payer health care guaranteed by the state, and banks are completely unregulated, leading to near total anarchy!
And where women never ever lie about rape.
Not entirely true, though. If it is a Legitimate Rape, however, then I understand that they do have a way of shutting that whole thing down.
Y'all need to fire Ed Krayewski. He's a disservice to liberty loving people everywhere.
Not seeing it.
Cause you're ignorant.
Where would she be if not for government?
Under the heel of Islamists or at the mercy of militias. It's a fact: Mogadishu is better off now than in decades. No government = no freedom.
Krayewski is an imbecile. Reason needs to chunk him pronto. He's embarrassing.
"No government = no freedom."
But not any government is gonna give you freedom. That's the point. Somalia under "anarchy" (which in reality is a bunch of small tribal, religious, and local archies) actually made some strides in development compared to where it was before then.
What strides?
http://mises.org/daily/5418/Anarchy-in-Somalia
Some examples given there include increased life expectancy, literacy rate, GDP per capita, mobile phone access, and lower death rate and infant mortality. If they had a government that was fairly respectful of rights during that time period, they probably would have improved more. However, that's probably not the kind of government you're going to get in Somalia at the moment.
This is actually something he wrote after we had a conversation about it. I had hoped to do a segment on it on the show. Ben Powell's work on the topic is solid too
How can so much evil be concentrated in such a small space for so long.
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